Pardini belonged to the 70^a Squadriglia, 23^o Gruppo Autonomo C.T., which was equipped with Fiat CR.42s.

Newly arrived reinforcement of Hurricanes to Malta allowed a strong reception of a raid during the morning on 23 November 1940. Ten 34^o Stormo S.79s escorted by eighteen CR.42s of 23^o Gruppo raided Takali and eight Hurricanes scrambled to intercept the raid as it came over Fifla at 16,000 feet. George Burges in Hurricane V7548 attacked five of the bombers in company with a couple of fighters. He thought he hit one “pretty hard”, and saw it going down, although he did not see it crash. He then shot pieces of another. Sergeant Robertson in V7474 (which had arrived on the island on the 17th November) also tried to attack the bombers, but was attacked himself by six CR.42s. He took evasive action, and fired at four, reporting that his fire tore the fabric from the top wing of one, which went into cloud. He claimed this as a probable, but it was only credited as a damaged. Meanwhile the Italian pilots were after the Hurricanes, Capitano Guido Bobba, Tenente Claudio Solaro and Sergente Pardino Pardini each claiming one shot down, while all the pilots of the 75^a Squadriglia claimed a fourth between them. Flight Lieutenant H. F. R. Bradbury’s aircraft was hit badly and he force-landed at Luqa. All the Italian fighters returned safely to their base.

The 23^o Gruppo CT under the command of Maggiore Tito Falconi started to arrive at Tripoli after a move from Sicily on 16 December 1940. On 19 December they moved to Z1 landing ground at Ain el Gazala and comprised of the 70^a, 74^a and 75^a Squadriglie commanded by Tenente Claudio Solaro, Capitano Guido Bobba and Capitano Pietro Calistri.

At 09:15 on 26 December, eight Gladiators from 3 RAAF Squadron took off from the LG south-west of Sollum to escort a Lysander doing artillery reconnaissance over Bardia. The Lysander failed to appear. At approximately 14:05 (obviously during a third patrol) two flights of five SM 79s escorted by a number of CR.42s were observed a few miles north-east of Sollum Bay. A separate formation of 18 CR.42s was following the bomber formation and escort 2,000 feet higher as top cover. Two Gladiators attacked the bomber formation whilst the remainder climbed to meet the higher formation. The attack on the bombers was broken off when the higher formation attacked the Gladiators. In the ensuing combat, Flight Lieutenant Gordon Steege and Flying Officer Wilfred Arthur each claimed a destroyed (seen to fall into the sea) and a damaged CR.42. Flying Officer Peter Turnbull, Flying Officer John Perrin and Flying Officer Alan Rawlinson each claimed one probable.
The CR.42s were 14 fighters from the newly arrived 23^o Gruppo led by the CO, Maggiore Tito Falconi and 22 CR.42s from the 10^o Gruppo. The CR.42s from the 23^o Gruppo included three from the 70^a Squadriglia (Tenente Claudio Solaro, Sergente Pardini and Tenente Gino Battaggion), five from the 74^a Squadriglia (Capitano Guido Bobba, Tenente Lorenzo Lorenzoni, Sottotenente Sante Schiroli, Sergente Maggiore Raffaele Marzocca (forced to return early due to a sudden illness) and Sergente Manlio Tarantino) and five from the 75^a Squadriglia (Tenente Pietro Calistri, Tenente Ezio Monti, Sottotenente Renato Villa, Sottotenente Leopoldo Marangoni and Maresciallo Carlo Dentis). The fighters from the the 10^o Gruppo included seven from the 91^a Squadriglia (Maggiore Carlo Romagnoli, Capitano Vincenzo Vanni, Capitano Mario Pluda, Sottotenente Andrea Dalla Pasqua, Sottotenente Ruggero Caporali, Sergente Maggiore Lorenzo Migliorato and Sergente Elio Miotto), nine from the 84^a Squadriglia (Capitano Luigi Monti, Tenente Antonio Angeloni, Sottotenente Luigi Prati, Sottotenente Bruno Devoto, Sergente Domenico Santonocito, Sergente Corrado Patrizi, Sergente Piero Buttazzi, Sergente Luciano Perdoni and Sergente Mario Veronesi) and six from the 90^a Squadriglia (Tenente Giovanni Guiducci, Tenente Franco Lucchini, Sottotenente Alessandro Rusconi, Sottotenente Neri De Benedetti, Sergente Luigi Contarini and Sergente Giovanni Battista Ceoletta), which had taken off at 13:00.
They were escorting ten SM 79s from the 41^o Stormo under Tenente Colonnello Draghelli and five SM 79s 216^a Squadriglia, 53^o Gruppo, 34^o Stormo, led by Tenente Stringa. The SM 79s had taken off from M2 at 12:25 and attacked Sollum harbour’s jetty (reportedly hit) and two destroyers inside Sollum Bay (with poor results because of the heavy AA fire). AA from the ships hit four bombers from the 34^o Stormo; one of them, piloted by Sottotenente Bellini had to force land close to Ain El Gazala with the central engine out of action. Returning pilots reported an attempt to intercept by some Gladiators but the escort repulsed the British fighters. They landed without further problems at 15:15.
Over the target, immediately after the bombing, the Italian fighters reported the interception of “enemy aircraft” alternatively “many Glosters” or “Hurricanes and Glosters”. The 70^a Squadrigli pilots claimed a shared Hurricane, this was possibly an aircraft from 33 Squadron. This unit’s ORB reported that during the day’s patrols many SM 79s and CR.42s were intercepted with one CR.42 believed damaged. Two Gladiators confirmed and two probables were shared between the whole 10^o Gruppo. Another Gladiator was assigned to the 23^o Gruppo (in the documents of 75^a Squadriglia but this is not confirmed by the other two Squadriglie). Many Glosters were claimed damaged by Tenente Lorenzoni, Sottotenente Schiroli, Sergente Tarantino, Sottotenente Marangoni, Tenente Calistri, Tenente Monti and Sottotenente Villa. The CR.42s were back between 14:30 and 15:05.
No Gladiators were lost even if three of them were damaged (all repairable within the unit). The Australians had done a very good job indeed, facing a formation four times more numerous (even if it seem improbable that all the Italian fighters were able to join the combat). From the Italian reports it seems that only the front sections of the escort (including the 74^a, 75^a and the 84^a Squadriglie) were engaged in a sharp dogfight with the Gladiators. The Australians were able to shot down the CO of the 74^a Squadriglia, Capitano Guido Bobba, who was killed when his fighter fell in flames into the sea and damaged Tenente Lorenzoni’s fighter, who landed at T2 (and came back to Z1 the day after). Three more CR.42s were damaged when Tenente Angeloni was forced to land at T5 before reaching Z1, Sergente Veronesi’s fighter was damaged and Sottotenente Prati was forced to make an emergency landing short of T2 (his fighter was reportedly undamaged and only suffering for a slight engine breakdown). Maggiore Falconi’s fighter was also heavily damaged but managed to return. The morning after Angeloni was able to return to Z1 with his aircraft.
Capitano Guido Bobba was awarded a posthumously Medaglia d’Argento al Valor Militare. He was replaced as CO of the 74^a Squadriglia by Tenente Mario Pinna.

On 5 January 1941 Flying Officer Ernest ‘Imshi’ Mason (Hurricane I P3722) and Second Lieutenant Robert Talbot (Hurricane I P3721) of 274 Squadron attacked Z1 landing ground at Ain el-Gazala, North Africa, current home of newly arrived 23^o Gruppo. They first made attack in the morning when Mason strafed CR.42 on the ground and Talbot claimed a S.79 taking off. They returned at 12.30 and Mason reported:

”in the afternoon we went there [Gazala airfield] again and circled over the aerodrome. Suddenly I saw two CR42s approaching to land. I dived down and came up behind. I gave the leader a burst and as I shot past him he turned slowly and dived straight in the middle of the aerodrome and exploded. In the meantime the other chap had turned and came for me head on. I gave him a short burst and he did the same thing. This time on the edge of the aerodrome. By then five more, also returning home, had seen me and were diving on me so Bob shot down the leader and they dispersed.”

At the time of his death, Pardini had claimed one victory, this one being claimed while flying Fiat CR.42.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1940
1	23/11/40		1	Hurricane (a)	Destroyed	Fiat CR.42		Fifla	70a Squadriglia
	26/12/40	-15:05	1/3	Hurricane (b)	Shared destroyed	Fiat CR.42		Sollum area	70a Squadriglia
	26/12/40	-15:05	1/13	Gladiator (b)	Shared destroyed	Fiat CR.42		Sollum area	70a Squadriglia

Biplane victories: 1 and 2 shared destroyed.
TOTAL: 1 and 2 shared destroyed.
(a) Regia Aeronautica claimed four destroyed; Flight Lieutenant H. F. R. Bradbury’s Hurricane badly damaged and he force-landed at Luqa.
(b) Claimed in combat with Gladiators from 3 RAAF Squadron, which claimed 2 and 3 probables without any losses, and possibly Hurricanes from 33 Squadron, which claimed a damaged CR.42 during the day. The 23^o Gruppo claimed 1 Hurricane and 1 Gladiator and the 10^o Gruppo claimed 2 and 2 probable Gladiators while losing one CR.42 and getting five more damaged.

Sources:
Hurricanes over Tobruk - Brian Cull with Don Minterne, 1999 Grub Street, London, ISBN 1-902304-11-X
Malta: The Hurricane Years 1940-41 - Christopher Shores and Brian Cull with Nicola Malizia, 1987 Grub Street, London, ISBN 0-89747-207-1
Additional information kindly provided by Ludovico Slongo.